Addressing Obesity and Diabetes Among African American Men: Examination of a Community-Based Model of Prevention

Systematic review of physical activity promotion by community health workers

“…A further twelve articles were excluded for the following reasons: incompatible age range (adolescents) (n= 4), lack of response from authors to requests for full texts (n= 3), publications based on the same study (n= 3), intervention not conducted by CHW (n= 1) and having a sample of patients with diseases such as autism, cerebral palsy, epilepsy and developmental disabilities (n= 1) ( Figure 1). The descriptive synthesis was based on the data of 26 original trials (Staten et al, 2004;Balcázar et al, 2005;Becker et al, 2005;Staten et al, 2005;Larkey, 2006;Gomes and Duarte, 2008;Plescia et al, 2008;Babamoto et al, 2009;Folta et al, 2009;Castillo et al, 2010;Comellas et al, 2010;Treadwell et al, 2010;Allen et al, 2011;Ayala, 2011;Mier et al, 2011;Ruggiero et al, 2011;Shlay et al, 2011;Spencer et al, 2011;Coleman et al, 2012;Cene et al, 2013;Islam et al, 2013a;Islam et al, 2013b;Jennings et al, 2013;Krantz et al, 2013;Duggan et al, 2014;Ursua et al, 2014).…”

“…Regarding study design, the majority of trials had no control group (n= 15, 57.7%) (Balcázar et al, 2005;Staten et al, 2005;Larkey, 2006;Castillo et al, 2010;Comellas et al, 2010;Treadwell et al, 2010;Ayala, 2011;Mier et al, 2011;Ruggiero et al, 2011;Shlay et al, 2011;Cene et al, 2013;Islam et al, 2013a;Jennings et al, 2013;Krantz et al, 2013;Ursua et al, 2014) and eight were pilot studies (Castillo et al, 2010;Comellas et al, 2010;Treadwell et al, 2010;Mier et al, 2011;Cene et al, 2013;Islam et al, 2013b;Krantz et al, 2013;Ursua et al, 2014). Only two studies were performed outside the United States, one in Brazil (Gomes and Duarte, 2008) and the other in England (Jennings et al, 2013) (Table 1).…”

“…The primary purpose of most of the studies was either to reduce cardiovascular risk (Balcázar et al, 2005;Becker et al, 2005;Staten et al, 2005;Plescia et al, 2008;Folta et al, 2009;Allen et al, 2011;Shlay et al, 2011;Krantz et al, 2013) or to lower the risk of diabetes mellitus type II (Staten et al, 2005;Plescia et al, 2008;Babamoto et al, 2009;Castillo et al, 2010;Comellas et al, 2010;Treadwell et al, 2010;Allen et al, 2011;Ruggiero et al, 2011;Spencer et al, 2011;Cene et al, 2013;Islam et al, 2013a;Islam et al, 2013b;Duggan et al, 2014). On the other hand, only five studies focused on the promotion of PA as their primary outcome (Staten et al, 2004;Gomes and Duarte, 2008;Ayala, 2011;Mier et al, 2011;Coleman et al, 2012).…”

“…On the other hand, only five studies focused on the promotion of PA as their primary outcome (Staten et al, 2004;Gomes and Duarte, 2008;Ayala, 2011;Mier et al, 2011;Coleman et al, 2012). Analysis of the samples revealed that, in terms of ethnicity/race, half of the interventions were applied in Hispanic populations (or descendants) (Staten et al, 2004;Balcázar et al, 2005;Staten et al, 2005;Larkey, 2006;Babamoto et al, 2009;Castillo et al, 2010;Ayala, 2011;Mier et al, 2011;Ruggiero et al, 2011;Spencer et al, 2011;Coleman et al, 2012;Duggan et al, 2014), and five (19.2%) in Blacks (Becker et al, 2005;Plescia et al, 2008;Treadwell et al, 2010;Spencer et al, 2011;Cene et al, 2013). In relation to clinical conditions, nine studies involved samples at risk of or with diabetes mellitus type II (Babamoto et al, 2009;Castillo et al, 2010;Comellas et al, 2010;Treadwell et al, 2010;Allen et al, 2011;Spencer et al, 2011;Islam et al, 2013a;Islam et al, 2013b;Duggan et al, 2014) and four studies included overweight/obese individuals (Folta et al, 2009;Treadwell et al, 2010;Mier et al, 2011;Jennings et al, 2013) (Table 1).…”

Explanatory Models of Obesity of Inner-City African-American Adolescent Males

“…They were quick to acknowledge the support they received from their families and valued the sense of sameness that they felt in their home environments and with their family members. Given that cultural values and sociodemographic variables impact physical and psychosocial development and the establishment of acceptable social norms (Robinson et al, 2009;Treadwell, Holden, Hubbard, Harper, Weight, & Kim, 2010), this is a dynamic that clearly warrants further qualitative exploration.…”